Chickens and Guineas transition?

[bcmelton76]

Greetings all,

I'm brand new here, so please pardon any idiocy on my part! I have an established flock of six chickens that live mostly in a run and I wanted to bond a group of guineas to them to keep the guineas close to home. I bought nine guinea keets and raised them with three Americana hens. They're currently living in a small coop sharing a wall the large one. My plan was to put all the guineas and hens into the main coop, leave them to settle for a week or so, and then let them out to roam one per day leaving the chickens in the run until all the guineas were out.

Well, we've had a broody hen hatch four biddies, and now I'm worried that the guineas will run flat over them. I don't want to wait another month to let the guineas out (they're getting BIG). Given that they've been living in such close proximity to the chickens and that the hens they were raised with will be added to the run and kept local, do I have anything to gain by waiting? Can I just let them out from the smaller coop and run with it, or should they have time in the main? (I don't intend to coop train them--I just want them to stay close.)

Any advice is appreciated!

Best Regards,
Brian

 

[red horse ranch]

My guineas and chickens live together in a large henhouse. But there are occasional conflicts. Guineas rule! They can be very bossy to the chickens. If your coop is large enough where the chickens can get away from the guineas they can co-exist okay. All my birds free range thru the day. The chickens stay pretty close to their home area. But the guineas will range over 30 acres every day. They will not stay close to the chickens even tho they live together. They all go inside the chicken yard and coop at night.

Any time guineas are moved to a new home they should have a month or more to consider that their home.

I would keep the brood hen and chicks in the smaller coop separated from the guineas until the chicks are 2 to 3 months old.

 

[bcmelton76]

Thanks! They've been here going on a month. For some reason, I hadn't thought about putting the broody in the smaller coop. That's probably the way to go.

We can't leave our chickens to free range due to nearby gardens, hence the plan to leave th chickens in and put the guineas out. We have about five acres and are then surrounded mostly by fields, so I'm hoping they won't go too far afield--for their own safety with roads and dogs. We'll just have to see how it works out.

Thanks again!